I am trying to learn Spanish – again. This is my third attempt. It isn’t going well; I suppose I am not going about it the right way. However, I am determined to learn it even it takes a decade. There is a difference in this third attempt, one I hope makes success: my attitude.
One of the troubles of growing up ‘white’ is the worry no matter how cognizant I am for Shadow elements in my Psyche they pop up in subtle ways. Although it was never said out loud while I was growing up there was a prejudice towards the Spanish language. Public Opinion opined learning French was amusing and German was OK somehow (probably because it was Germanic, not Romance), but not Spanish. Another ‘axiom’ was Americans don’t learn other languages; people coming here are supposed to learn proper English. Spanish was the language of ‘outsiders’, ‘lower class types’, and (later on) ‘invaders’. The only ones who needed to know Spanish were social workers and those who had to interact with the menials. Oh the embarrassment of all this rubbish. Never mind most countries have several official languages and their citizens often speak two or more languages and no one overthrows the country like invading Mongols.
I live in the Southwest where Spanish isn’t just a language but a incendiary symbol. Many not only refuse to learn Spanish lest they ‘succumb to the enemy” but try to stifle its use, sometimes in blunt and nasty ways.* I am pleased I am able to see my childhood prejudices and rise above them. I now see learning Spanish (or any language) as entering into a culture with history and with linguistics of nuance and delight.
If successful I can boost knowing four languages: English, German, ASL, and Spanish.
Now if only I can wrap my tongue around all those damn Spanish past tenses. Que feo.
Spo-fans: what languages can you speak? Do you hear anti-Spanish talk in your part of the world?
*Someone once worked in a polling station (as the token Democrat) with an elderly white woman (representing the GOP). She remonstrated the ballots were in English and Spanish. She complained her tax dollars had to pay for this and it just encourages the illegals to vote. He tactfully pointed out a) only certified citizens can vote and b) ballots are available in many languages if requested. This enlightenment merely elicited in the doyenne ‘this is bullshit”.
31 comments
June 19, 2018 at 11:16 AM
anne marie in philly
I can read most French, a little Spanish, and a little Portuguese. speaking is not happening; speaking needs constant practice with live people.
June 19, 2018 at 11:17 AM
anne marie in philly
PS – my BIL/SIL and sister practice the doyenne “this is bullshit” rule. I cut off contact with them (fucking dump supporters).
June 19, 2018 at 12:29 PM
Urspo
Clever girl !
June 19, 2018 at 11:18 AM
Debra She Who Seeks
I was fluent in French when I was in university, but it has sadly deteriorated through lack of use since then. Now that I’m retired, I want to do some conversational French classes in due course and get back up to speed if I can.
June 19, 2018 at 12:29 PM
Urspo
Good luck; I feel the same way with my German.
June 19, 2018 at 11:24 AM
David
I have studied French on and off, seemingly forever. I was pleasantly surprised in Toronto at my ability to follow along in the announcements in French. I am certainly not fluent, but I can order dinner, and tell you my luggage is on fire and wants a shower. Don’t obsess over past tenses, learn the language as a living language. It is better to sound like a 3 year old, than a Dump supporter. DC is so international, that Spanish goes almost without notice.
June 19, 2018 at 12:30 PM
Urspo
Good for you ! I figured you knew a handful of lingos
June 19, 2018 at 11:38 AM
Steven
A “learned” (not native) Spanish speaker here and used it at Village Hall today. Sentiments are terrible toward those who speak Spanish. They feel that they should learn English instead of us learning Spanish.
June 19, 2018 at 12:31 PM
Urspo
Around these parts the youngsters have no problem learning both languages and going back/forth between them depending on the context.
June 19, 2018 at 11:45 AM
mitchellismoving
Hard to believe but I DO hear anti-Spanish talk in my part of the world … Spain! English-speaking expats and tourists who think Spaniards are here only to serve them. You should be very proud to already speak languages other than English!
June 19, 2018 at 12:32 PM
Urspo
The only way I can imagine Spanish being frowned upon in your neck of the woods is some local dialect is considered ‘not proper” . But anti-Spanish – in Spain! makes no sense/makes my eyes-cross.
June 19, 2018 at 2:34 PM
Kina
I am determined to learn Spanish too! We can do it!
June 19, 2018 at 7:17 PM
Urspo
Lovely to hear from you mia amiga bonita! I hope it is so for the both of us!
June 19, 2018 at 3:41 PM
Todd Gunther
Does “Philadelphian” count as an American dialect?
June 19, 2018 at 7:17 PM
Urspo
I’ve heard tell it qualifies as Middle English gone bad.
June 19, 2018 at 7:03 PM
larrymuffin
How can this be? Third try? I think that when you come to visit we will discourse only in French, Italian or Spanish. Maybe smoking lots of pot will help your learning.
June 19, 2018 at 7:16 PM
Urspo
I would adore learning French if you would be my teacher. I hope you are a) good (don’t want to learn no bad French) b) not to severe and b) don’t charge too much. I promise to be a good student
June 20, 2018 at 1:32 PM
larrymuffin
Monsieur est amusant, je suis un professeur de qualité et les mauvais élèves sont punis sévèrement. Alors il faut bien se tenir!
June 20, 2018 at 1:57 PM
Urspo
Tenquiner !
June 19, 2018 at 9:21 PM
Practical Parsimony
I studied Spanish in hs, uni, and since speaking to others. I studied Greek and still know a bit, just written. I studied Latin and still benefit. I studied Japanese. I want to learn a new language to increase the synapses in my brain or to retain the ones I have. There is a community college in this town where only Spanish is taught.
Forget about the verbe tenses! Now! See what I did with “verb”? Now, that is Chaucerian. How about that?
You need to learn how to learn, and learning tenses is the wrong way. Learn all the infinitives and call it good. Learn singular and present tense and call it good. Native Spanish speakers will help you when you speak to them.
If someone came to you and sad “eat?”, you would know the person was hungry and wanted to find a restaurant. You would not press the person for the right tense of the verb and all the attending words to make it a proper English sentence.
Don’t try to sound as smart or learned as you are. Just speak.
June 20, 2018 at 6:47 AM
Urspo
Wise council, indeed.
I admire thems who have studied greek and latin.
June 19, 2018 at 9:41 PM
wcs
Started learning French in the 6th grade. Continued on to 12th. Took a break for 4 years, then went to Paris for a year. All that gave me a good base for traveling and eventually living in France. I am now, for all practical purposes, fluent. But, being retired, my daily interactions are limited. I have trouble with long, involved conversations. And expressing political opinions is difficult (although I have yet to find anyone here who disagrees with my opinion of the Orange One).
June 20, 2018 at 6:49 AM
Urspo
Long involved conversations, especially political ones, are not worth it.
I thank you for the data on Herr Furor; I am curious to know what thems in Europe think of the miscreant
June 19, 2018 at 10:02 PM
Ron
One of the great regrets of my life is that I didn’t learn to speak a foreign language. If I did Spanish would be my first choice. It would cone in so handy where I live now. I admire multi/lingual people.
June 20, 2018 at 6:49 AM
Urspo
Not too late to try, Ron. It helps keep your wits!
June 19, 2018 at 11:48 PM
Autolycus
FWIW I specialised in French and German at school and university, and picked up smatterings of bits of the language in other European countries I went to visit (not too difficult to cope with Spanish or Italian if you’ve done Latin and French, or Dutch if you have German). I can just about ask for a pound of tomatoes in a Greek market, and I did learn on a weekend trip to Budapest that the Hungarian for thirty is “harminc” (pronouncd “hormints”- now there’s a brand name for a confectionery).
Everywhere will have some people who take the same sort of umbrage at the “other”, whether that’s identified by language, skin colour or visible religious observance. Where I live in London, the local population is probably about one-third of Bangladeshi heritage, with sizeable communities from Somalia, Vietnam and other parts of South Asia, not to mention plenty of expatriate thrusters in finance, IT and similar businesses, from all around the world. It’s quite usual for any official document to have a sheet in a number of other languages telling people how to get the official translation (but not ballot papers, that’s English only – and Welsh, in Wales). On the bus or trains, you can hear just about any language, and they’re not all visitors.
Even so, we get a few incidents each year of someone (usually drunk) ranting at someone for not talking English on the bus, or going out of their way to insult Muslims. Or indeed a few self-important teenagers have tried to throw their weight around claiming a “Muslim area” that the rest of us don’t belong in. That sort of troublemaker usually ends up in court.
You’ll also occasionally hear people from less diverse areas of the country without much experience of immigration say things like “I went to London and there wasn’t a soul speaking English”, and a large part of the Brexit phenomenon comes from the unexpectedly large influx of people from the former communist states of eastern Europe into such areas. They were often groups of single men, in horrible seasonal jobs, crammed together in poor accommodation and not much to do in their spare time but drink, so you can imagine the consequences.
June 20, 2018 at 6:51 AM
Urspo
Fascinating reading, this. I thank you for spending time to type it out.
June 20, 2018 at 7:46 AM
wickedhamster
Hmmmm… I can read 5 with varying degrees of success, but I’m only comfortable saying I can speak 2: French and Italian. German and I don’t get along for some reason (Classical Greek was easier for me). I quip German is easy to learn; I’ve learned it 3 times myself already. I can barely read. I find Romance languages pretty easy, and I have known lots of English speakers who have no problem with German, but can’t catch onto French. Something in the way the mind works, I think, but look who I’m talkin’ to on that subject… My guess is you may have the Germanic-easy / Romance-hard situation.
June 20, 2018 at 10:29 AM
Urspo
I am ultimately descened from Nordic stock (Vikings) who became Normans but apparently this pause before becoming Englishmen was not long enough for Romance languages to get into my muscle memory. Germanic languages seem ‘easy’ for me; Romance ones not.
I admire anyone who knows Greek – good for you !
June 20, 2018 at 5:24 PM
truthspew
Did three years of Spanish in high school. Still remember a lot of it. In fact been brushing up on DuoLingo though that cooled somewhat. However I do enough that it serves me well since the delivery men etc. are all jabbering in Espanol and I just raise an eyebrow at some of it.
June 20, 2018 at 8:17 PM
Urspo
Bueno !